By analyzing the dynamics of participation in the democratic platform of the Madrid City Council, we identified the incentives and frameworks of those who participate. Thanks to these conclusions, we managed to encourage citizens to organize themselves in communities to present well-received proposals to the municipal government.

About the project

We collaborated with Medialab-Prado, a innovation and digital culture center based in Madrid, on a project to enhance participation in the online democracy platform of the Madrid City Council (Decide Madrid). Through research, we learned that participation was highly scattered and understood the motivations and frameworks of the citizens that were engaged.

We sensed that there was a possibility that citizens with similar concerns and compatible frameworks could transform into propositive communities. To do this, we designed hybrid processes (online and face-to-face) and managed to transform restless but isolated citizens into active communities within the platform. The achievement was possible because Madrid gave them real citizen power, a necessary incentive to unite the communities.

For example, one of the communities was activated around the importance of public spaces for children right to play. Its driving group wrote a proposal with a series of measures on the Right to Play. This was applauded by the UN expert in the field for its technical quality and exhaustiveness. The driving group was talking and reaching agreements with the City Council for its implementation, but unfortunately the mayor’s office – after local elections – changed political sides and discarded the initiative.

This project allowed us to verify that the understanding given by digital research mixed with hybrid processes (with the appropriate use of technology) generates powerful results of collective intelligence and creativity. Therefore, we packaged this knowledge to disseminate it among professionals in the field of e-democracy and community creation.

When

September 2017 – May 2019.

Contributors

The project was funded by Medialab-Prado (Madrid City Council). We thank the colaboration and engagment of the citizens participating in Decide Madrid.

More info

• • Systematization of the project: “Construyendo comunidades colaborativas: el reto de transformar la participación individual en colectiva y estratégica en Decide Madrid” (PDF)
  • Paper, -MediaLab Prado Presentation “Estrategias en Comunidades y Redes Sociales Digitales para Fomentar las Prácticas Participativas” (PDF), premio GIGAPP Jóvenes Investigadores Joan Prats 2018
  • “Derecho a Jugar” Presentación en MediaLab Prado (Video)